Opening Ceremony For IPL 8 Set To Begin At Kolkata’s Salt Lake Stadium

The World Cup has ended with some excitement matches for all the cricket lovers, but there is a lot of pleasure still left. You can experience more fun with the 8th edition of the IPL (Indian Premier League) that’s all set to start. The league this year will kick off with a Bollywood style opening at the Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata. This cricket event, which has been known to bring together all the cricket superstars and play the T20 format of the game, will be studded with stars from Bollywood as well.

The schedule for the event has been finalized at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, when celebrities will grace the occasion. The star performers of the ceremony include Hrithik Roshan, Anushka Sharma, Shahid Kapoor, Farhan Akhtar and Pritam. This ceremony has returned to this venue after 2 years, which was held at the same stadium for the 2013 edition of the tournament. A dispute aroused among the West Bengal Government, the organizers and the IPRS (Indian Performing Right Society) Ltd, because of the failure of royalty payment for the use of music. However, the settlement on time paved a way for the ceremony to take place at the scheduled time and place.

The ceremony will be a 2-hour show, covering songs from the actor-director Farhan Akhtar’s band. Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Cricketing legend of India’s son and actor Saif Ali Khan will serve as the host for the show and will also introduce stars and cricketers to the spectators. Shahid, Anushka and Hrithik Roshan will entice the spectators with their glittering performances on the occasion.

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Actors Anushka Sharma and Hrithik Roshan arrived at the venue on Monday, a day before the event, for rehearsals. Although the climatic conditions have not been favorable for the stars to practice their moves, yet they ignored the circumstances and got engaged in the practice.

Sony Six and Sony Max are the official partners of the tournament and will cover the event live on TV, where HotStar will offer online live streaming service. For IPL fans in the UK, the ceremony will be covered by Sky Sports and by ESPN in the USA, with live streaming service provided by Sky Go and ESPN Cricket respectively.

The opening game will be played between the defending champions, KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) and MI (Mumbai Indians) on April 8 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. KKR will play to defend the title, after winning it for the second time in 2014 after defeating KXIP (Kings XI Punjab).